Reflection Paper

To prepare for this assignment, consider the literary periods and the "big ideas" that are represented in each of them. Select one idea from each of three periods with which you most identify. For each selected idea, write a reflective paragraph about your connection to and experience(s) regarding this idea, referencing at least one piece of literature from the period to back up your example. Begin your paper with an introduction that mentions each of the literary periods we've studied, and specifically highlight the three you'll discuss in your paper. End with a conclusion that states which of these three periods you find most influential for you personally and why.

Your paper will be graded on the following:

• Use of detail (regarding the period and the literary works)
• Elaboration
  
• Coherence
  
• Analysis
• Personal Reflection

Literary Periods/Works to Consider:

• Encounters and Foundations to 1800 (Puritans and Rationalists)

1. Introduction, 14-5
2. Bradstreet, 27
3. Edwards, 45
4. Equiano, 53
5. Franklin, 75
6. Henry, 80
7. (The Crucible, 1216)

• Romanticism: 1800-1860

1. Introduction, 167-71
2. Longfellow, 195
3. Thoreau, 213
4. Hawthorne, 249
5. The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne
   
6. Poe, 277, 297

• Rise of Realism: Civil War to 1914

1. Introduction, 457-9
2. Douglass, 465
3. Crane, 501
4. Chopin, 569
5. Twain, 523
6. Bierce, 489

• The Moderns: 1914-1939

1. Introduction, 639
2. Pound, 648
3. Eliot, 655
4. Williams, 665
5. Moore, 671
6. cummings, 675
7. Frost, 801, 805
8. Cullen, 819
9. Hughes, 823
10. Sandburg, 848-9
11. Masters, 851
12. Bontemps, 855
13. McKay, 880
14. Hemingway, 683, handouts
15. Faulkner, 721
16. Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck
    
17. The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald

• Contemporary: 1939-present

1. Introduction, 899
2. The Crucible, 1216, Miller
3. Into the Wild, Krakauer
4. Danticat, 1049
5. Walcott, 1161